


Meetup #17 - A Solangelo Story

by PanicFallingRomance



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, M/M, youtube au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-02-20 15:43:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13149780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanicFallingRomance/pseuds/PanicFallingRomance
Summary: GHXSTKXNG aka Nico di Angelo is one of the most popular stars on Youtube these days. When he finally decides to go to Playlist Live, other popular Youtuber, TheDoctor or Will Solace, catches his eye. But of course, Nico is oblivious as to Will's mutual feelings towards Nico.





	1. |EMAIL|

**Author's Note:**

> aight waddup?! so this story is also posted on Wattpad and Fanfiction.net under the same name so if it seems familiar, don't think I snatched up the story to use for myself. hope you enjoy!

Nico di Angelo bobbed his head as Fall Out Boy blasted from his speakers. It was 10am and Nico was ready to start his day. By sitting down at his computer desk in his skeleton onesie. Nico was known on the internet as GHXSTKXNG. More specifically, on youtube, for having 10 million followers. He opened his computer and was greeted with the sight of his sister Hazel and his best friend Reyna as his screensaver. He logged into his work email (ghxstkxnginquires@gmail.com) and looked through it. Fan mail, fan mail, ads, fan mail, Playlist Live Invitation, fan mail. Wait what? He scrolled back. An email from Playlist Live 2017. Nico felt his heart rate speed up as he clicked on the email. 

'Dear Nico di Angelo (GHXSTKXNG),' it said.

'Hello. You have officially been invited to join us at Playlist Live 2017 in Orlando, Florida on May 5th through May 7th at the World Marriott Hotel. If you choose to accept this invitation, you will be able to reserve a place in the hotel with a guest or another creator, as well as be given a meetup day and time along with a few panels. Please reserve your spot by April 1, 2017 to be guaranteed a space in the West Tower, where only creators with a pass (that you will receive) may enter. Thank you for expanding the Playlist Live family and we hope to see you here with us this year!'

Nico stopped breathing as he read the invitation. He always saw his friends there every year having fun, but he never expected he'd be there with them! 

He read the email over a few times before standing up and looking at his calendar. He had nothing going on for those days. Big surprise. 

He quickly sat back down at the desk and opened up a blank email addressed to Playlist Live.

'Hello.' He started.

'This is Nico di Angelo and I am writing to inform you that I will be able to attend Playlist Live 2017 in Orlando, Florida. I will be bringing a guest with me so I would like to request a room with two beds please. It is an absolute honor to be invited to Playlist this year and I am so excited for it. Thank you again! Nico di Angelo.'

Nico pressed send and let out a deep breath. He then pushed himself out from under his desk and jumped up and up squealing like a young child. He was going to Playlist Live! 

"Shut up, Nico!" Nico heard his roommate Ethan Nakumura yell from the other room. 

Nico stopped yelling seeing as Ethan was probably trying to fall back asleep now that Nico had woke him up. 

"Sorry Ethan." He whispered through the wall.

Nico ran over to the side of his bed where his phone was and quickly turned it on. He pulled up the phone app and dialed Reyna. 

"Hello?" He heard a groggy voice from the other end.

"Reyna? It's Nico. I've got some news for you." He said.

"What is it Nico? And is it so important that it couldn't wait until after noon?" Reyna complained.

"How would you feel about going to Playlist Live in Florida as my guest?" He asked excitedly.

"Woah, what? What are you talking about?"

"I got invited to go to Playlist Live this year and I can bring one guest, so let's go to Florida!"

"No! You're kidding! Wait. You're serious! Oh my god, Nico! This is amazing!" Reyna started yelling so loudly that Nico had to move the phone away from his ear.

"Shhh," he said laughing. "Isn't Rachel at your house? You'll wake her."

"Nah. Rachel sleeps like the dead, and anyways she's visiting her mom for a week so I have the apartment to myself. And who cares! You're going to Playlist Live!" She screamed.

"We're going to Playlist Live." Nico corrected. "I just can't believe it! I'm going to have my own meet up and everything! And I'll be talking at panels and meeting all my fans.... Oh my god. I'm going to be talking at panels and meeting fans. That's- that's a lot of people to watch me talk and I have to talk to. My god, what if I mess up? Maybe I should email Playlist again and tell them I made a mistake and won't be able to attend. And I'm a 22 year old millennial, I have no money! How will I pay for my ticket and room? This is a sign. I probably shouldn't go this year-"

"Nico! Honey! Breath! You will be fine. The fans don't care if you are awkward, I mean they must realize that you are a bit antisocial if they watch your videos. You are a youtube star, for gods sake! You have money! Your dad owns one of the biggest companies in the world! Money has never been a problem for you! You are going to Playlist Live and that is final!" Reyna scolded.

"Alright, mom." Nico rolled his eyes, not that Reyna could see, but he had a feeling she knew he had done it.

"I'm so excited for you! For us! Nico! You can finally meet Percy Jackson! Your long time secret gay crush and favorite youtuber!"

Nico shook his head. "He probably doesn't even know I exist. It would be pretty cool to say I know him, though."

Nico winced as he heard the door to his apartment slam open. 

"Aloha bitches!" He heard echo through the apartment.

"Hey Reyna, I got to go. Thalia just arrived." Nico sighed.

"Uh oh. Have fun!" Reyna laughed and hung up. 

Nico opened the door to his room and walked out into the hallway. 

"Hello Thalia! What brings you here on the wonderful morning?" Nico exclaimed.

Thalia put her coat on the rack next to the door. "I stopped by because we live in the same apartment building a I have a key and felt like coming over and eating some macaroni and cheese, which I know you always have an abundance of."

She walked over to the pantry, pulled out some Annie's white cheddar shells and started making the macaroni.

Nico followed her and started up the coffee pot for himself. "Well you're not wrong. Anyways, I have some pretty cool news. Coffee?" He grabbed two mugs out of the cabinet and held on out towards her.

"Sure. The news?" The water in the pot started to boil and she quickly poured the shells in.

"I got an email this morning," Nico poured the coffee into the two mugs and put two sugars in Thalia's. "Inviting me to Playlist Live in Orlando this year."

Thalia put the large wooden spoon she was using to stir the mac and cheese down. "You what?"

"I'm going to Playlist Live this year."

Thalia nodded and went back to her pasta. "Sweet. You can finally meet my brother, Jason. He's bringing me this year and I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you're bringing Reyna with you?"

Nico laughed. "Yeah, you're right. I was actually on the phone with Reyna asking if she'd come with me when you barged in!"

They both laughed when a muffled 'I swear if you don't shut up I'm going to come out there and beat both your asses!' came from across the apartment.

Thalia turned to Nico. "I still don't understand how you stand to have him as a roommate. He just seems like such a horrible person!"

Nico shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. "He was my only friend in high school so when I made this decision, I didn't really have any options besides staying and living in my parents basement. He's actually not that bad besides the occasional yelling at me to shut up. He mostly just stays in his room, only coming out to eat dinner."

Thalia nodded. "Alright. You know," she said, bringing her mac and cheese to the dining table and sitting down. "I've known you, what, 4, 5, years now? And I come over, like, once or twice a week right? I think I've seen Ethan maybe a total of 10 times. I just find that really weird. Why not move in with Reyna or your sister?"

Nico walked over and sat on the table. "Well, Reyna shares an apartment with her college roommate Rachel and Hazel just graduated and moved in with Frank so I didn't really have any time to ask her."

Thalia nodded and continued to eat her macaroni. 

"It's just that, I think soon I'll probably move out anyways. Maybe find a roommate to share an actual house with me. Hey, maybe I'll even meet someone at Playlist who would move in with me."

Thalia stood up and put her pull in the sink. She turned to Nico and pointed at it. "I'm not cleaning that."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll get it later." He hopped off of the table. "Anyways, I have to film a video about me going to Playlist Live. Wanna be in it?"

Thalia smiled. "What the heck. Lets do it!"

They walked into Nico's bedroom. Thalia shut the door while Nico grabbed his camera set up and placed it in front of the bed. He turned it on as Thalia sat down on the bed. Nico sat down next to Thalia and turned to her. 

"You ready?"

"You bet your ass I am."

They turned to the camera and smiled. 

"Hello again everyone. I'm Nico!"


	2. |VIDEO|

"Hello again everyone! I'm Nico. And with me today is your favorite rocker sister, Thalia Grace!"

Thalia waved at the camera. "I'm not his sister. I'm Jason Grace's sister. Follow him at SuperBoi!"

Nico playfully slapped her. "Hey! Stop promoting your brother on my channel! I don't condone this."

Thalia laughed. "Anyways, Nico. I hear you have some pretty exciting news for your followers?'

Nico smiled at the camera. "That I do. I know that in the past I have stated that I would never want to go to a convention and as of yesterday, I had never even been invited to one because of that statement I made three years ago. But this morning I was reached out to by a special youtube convention you all know and love so here's you guys hearing it first. I am officially going to Playlist Live Orlando 2017!"

Nico did jazz hands and Thalia hugged him.

"I will be bringing my friend Reyna, who you all know and love!" Nico exclaimed.

"And I'll be there with Jason! So catch us outside. How bout that!" Thalia said.

Nico looked at her strangely. "Please never do that again."

She shrugged. "I was just testing it out."

They laughed and Nico turned back to the camera.

"So at Playlist I will have a meetup group with some other people and I also think I'll be attending a few panels. I don't know all of the details yet, but make sure to follow Playlist Live on Instagram so you can be caught up on all the newest news surrounding me and Playlist!" Nico explained.

Thalia turned to him. "Newest news?"

Nico grinned. "Leave me alone!"

Thalia turned and winked at the camera. "And we all know Nico's most excited to meet his gay lover Percy Jackson!"

Nico blushed. "Thalia! You know I'm over that."

Thalia smirked. "Yeah. You've moved on to Dan Howell!"

"Well, duh! Who doesn't have a big old crush on him? He's the most lovable person ever!"

Thalia shrugged her shoulders. "I admit. I have had a crush on him in the past."

"Ha!" Nico turned back to the camera. "Anyways that's it for today's video! I'll be sure to link Thalia's social media in the description box below and see you next time!"

"Goodbye!" Thalia yelled.

"Shut up!" That was Ethan from the other room.

Thalia and Nico giggled before Nico got up and turned off the video.

Nico sighed. "I'm so excited for Playlist. You've been a few times, haven't you? Can you tell me a bit about it."

Thalia nodded. "A'ight. So basically there are thousands of screaming fans roaming the halls so if you decide to walk through the halls, there is a 99.9% chance that you will be ambushed by them. A lot of them are really sweet and will ask for a picture and just be overall really nice, but there are a few fans who are kind of crazily obsessed and will scream and jump on you."

At Nico's scared look, she continued.

"There is another route that many of the more popular youtubers, like you for example, will take. The area of the hotel you will be staying in has security guards surrounding it so only people with a special pass can get in. You will most definitely receive that. Through the doors that are being guarded, there is a huge youtuber party literally always going on there. Once you are in there, there's lots of different hallways and through one of them will be your room. As for transportation through there? There's golf carts that drive the youtubers to and from meetups and panels, and they go through the back so you don't normally run into fans. It's pretty simple."

Nico nodded. "Okay. I think I can handle that. Maybe." He got up and walked over to his desk. "I'm going to check if Playlist emailed me back yet about my room and panels and my meetup and all that."

He opened the computer and saw the email from Playlist Live. He quickly opened it and scanned over the new information.

'Dear Nico di Angelo,

Thank you so much for getting back to us so quickly and for accepting our invitation! We know how you feel about these kinds of things! Your room with two beds will be room #4020 in the West Tower. Your meetup will be #17, with 5 more youtubers we have yet to announce. You have been invited to join the How to Get Big panel and the LGBT Community panel. You are free to post about coming whenever you please, but please do not announce your meetup group or your panels until further notice. Thank you so much for coming!'

Nico smiled. "Okay so apparently I'm going to be in meetup #17 and I'll be doing the How to Get Big panel and the LGBT Community panel. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone about that so keep it on the downlow."

Thalia looked up from her phone. "Oops. I already posted all about it on twitter."

"Thalia!"

"Kidding, kidding. Jason just texted me our room number and I guess we are just down the hall from you! Room #4026."

Nico smiled. "Sweet! This is going to be so fun!"

Thalia nodded. "You know it!" She got up and started walking around Nico's room, running her hands over random knick knacks scattered across the room.

Thalia turned to Nico. "You know, Nico? I'm really happy that you decided to get out there and go to Playlist Live this year. This time last year, you would't have even begun to think about doing something like this! It just really shows how far along you've come. I'm proud of you."

Nico looked down. "Honestly I can't believe I agreed to do this either. I don't think I'll be able to believe myself until I'm there in Florida getting ready to meet all the fans." He laughed lightly. "I think that's when I'm finally going to freak out completely and lose it."

Thalia walked over and put her hand on Nico's shoulder. "You won't lose it and I'll make sure of that. Besides, if you somehow manage to overcome my encouragement, I'll slap some sense into you!" She moved her hand in front of Nico and stretched it out towards him. 

"Enough sentimental goo. Let's order a pizza."

Nico grabbed her hand and stood up. "It's only, like, 11 am. Why would we eat lunch that early? "

Thalia laughed and shook her head. She let go of Nico's hand and ran towards the door. She flung it open and started down the hall.

"Silly Nico! Its never too early for pizza!"


	3. |RIDE|

{A FEW MONTHS AFTER LAST CHAPTER}

"Make sure you clean the places while I'm gone. I do not want to come home to a dark and disgusting place. Don't forget to get some human interaction. Go outside. Order food. I know how much you secretly love Chinese. You know better than to go into my room, so I'm not even going to talk about that. Have fun while I'm gone!"

Nico di Angelo flinched as Ethan Nakumura slammed the door in Nico's face. Yes. Nico knew he had been a little overboard on what Ethan was supposed to do while Nico was at Playlist Live, but it had all been for the good of Ethan's heath. Physical and mental.

"I forgot how harsh Ethan was sometimes."

Nico turned to his best friend Reyna and laughed. "I know. He secretly loves me though. I can tell. Anytime I ask him to do something, he does it." He grabbed his suitcase and started walking down the stairs. "He may claim that some unknown entity did it and not him, but he's a pretty chill dude overall."

Reyna nodded and followed Nico down the stairs.

"So are we meeting Thalia at the airport or in Florida?" Reyna asked.

"The airport. We'll all be on the same flight and once we land in Florida, Thalia's brother is going to pick us up and bring us to the hotel." Nico said, opening the door to the apartment building and heading outside.

"Why didn't she drive with us? She lives in this building, right?" Reyna asked.

"Yeah. She just loves to be late for everything so she said she didn't want to put us in danger of missing the flight." Nico opened up his Uber app on his phone and checked where their driver was.

"Okay so this says our Uber has a black Cadillac and is parked across the street. It also says to just walk over and knock on the window when we spot it." Nico said putting his sunglasses on and turning off his phone.

Reyna pointed across the street. "I think that's our car."

Nico looked where she was pointing. "Yeah. Lets go."

Reyna walked across the street to the car while Nico attempted to carry all of their luggage by himself. Reyna walked over to the passenger side and knocked on the window. The driver looked up and rolled down the window.

"Hi," the driver said. "Are you Nico?"

Reyna smiled and nodded. "I'm Reyna, but that boy over there is Nico."

The driver and Reyna turned towards where Nico was, lugging the suitcases across the road over to the car. He stopped and waved when he saw them looking at him.

Reyna and the driver turned back to each other. "Okay. My name is Mitchel and I'll be driving you to LAX this morning, correct?"

Reyna nodded. "That sounds good. Would you mind popping the trunk open for Nico? I think he could use some help."

"Of course!" Mitchel said. He pressed a button and the back of the car started to rise slowly.

Reyna walked to where Nico, sitting on a suitcase in the middle of the road.

"Come on, Nico. Up you go." She grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

Reyna pulled her suitcase to the back of the car and lifted it into the trunk. She turned around and saw Nico still sitting on his suitcase and walked back over to him.

"Lazy." She snorted and took his suitcase.

She stuffed it in the car and shut the trunk behind her. She got into the car where Nico was already seated.

The driver pulled away from the apartment building and drove off towards the airport.

|LINE BREAK|

The car pulled up in front of LAX and Nico and Reyna grabbed their bags out of the trunk. They waved goodbye to the Uber and walked inside.

"Well," Nico said, turning to Reyna. "He was kind of a shitty Uber driver. Wouldn't you say?"

Reyna nodded. "He didn't offer to help us with our bags or anything! He almost ran, like, red lights. And I don't even think I saw him stop at a single stop sign!"

They laughed and continued in the line to get their boarding passes and give the workers their luggage.

"Hello and welcome to Delta Airlines. May I have your name?" The woman at their station asked.

"Nico di Angelo." Nico replied.

The woman, whose name tag read Lacy, quickly typed something up on her computer.

"Okay. Two seats on the flight to Orlando, Florida, yes?" She asked, smiling that fake flight attendant like smile.

Nico nodded.

"Okie dokie. You can put your suitcase on here to weigh it while I print out your boarding passes."

Nico places his luggage on one scale while Reyna places her on the other. Neither went over the weight limit, which meant they didn't have to pay a fee.

"Okay. Here are your boarding passes. You'll be in seats 21A and 21B." Lacy handed them the tickets and they walked off towards the security line.

|LINE BREAK|

Nico and Reyna boarded the plane and walked down the aisle to get to their seat. Reyna took the window seat while Nico put their carry on bags into the overhead apartment, only leaving his laptop bag to put under the seat in front of him.

"Okay. Thalia is supposed to have the seat next to us if she makes it." Reyna said.

Nico nodded. "She'll probably just barely make it."

"You're probably right." Reyna said, turning to the book she was currently reading called 'Be More Chill'.

Nico turned on his phone and started reading through emails, since it would be a waste to pull out his laptop at the moment because he would have to put it right back up while take off was happening. 

Nico heard heaving breathing and footsteps getting louder. He looked up and saw a familiar face running towards his seat. The body slammed down into the seat across from Nico and shoved their bag under the seat in front of them.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." Nico said, dragging out each word.

Thalia turned to him and glared. "Oh shut it. You knew it would be like this!" 

Reyna turned to the pair and smiled at Thalia. "Good morning, Thalia! Long time no see!"

"Reyna! My favorite person here!" Nico stuck his tongue out at Thalia when she said that.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to ask that you all now fasten your seat belt, as the plane will be taking off in just a minute."

Nico fastened his seat belt and was looking out the window as the plane started to take off. 

Goodbye New York, He thought. Hello Orlando.


	4. |WELCOME|

Nico huffed as he grabbed his bag from the luggage pickup and placed it next to Reyna and Thalia's suitcases. He brushed off his hands and sighed.

"Okay. My bag finally came around so I think we're good to go!" Nico said, pretending to wipe sweat off of his forehead.

Thalia laughed. "All you did was lift a bag, Hercules."

"Actually, Hercules' real name is Heracles in Greek so you should have said, 'All you did was lift a bag, Heracles.'" Reyna pointed out.

Thalia groaned. "Oh shut it, Athena."

Reyna raised her eyebrows at Thalia's statement. "Wow. I didn't know you knew so much about Greek mythology."

Thalia looked down. "Greek mythology was kind of, sort of, my minor in college."

Nico barked out a laugh. "What? I didn't even know you went to college!"

Thalia shrugged. "It was community college. Same thing as, like, legit college."

She grabbed her bag and started walking outside to where Jason was going to pick them up. "Besides, Nico, you can't say anything because you didn't go to college in the first place!"

Reyna and Nico grabbed their luggage and quickly followed after Thalia.

"Jason should be pulling up any minute now. I told him the plane landed at 3." Thalia said to the other two.

As she finished, a blue Toyota Highlander pulled up in front of them. The passenger side window rolled down to reveal and young man with blond hair, blue eyes, and turtle shell glasses sitting in the driver's seat. The man smiled at them and quickly jumped out of the car.

"Thals!" Jason yelled as he grabbed his sister and pulled her in for a tight hug.

"Jason! Hey!" Thalia said, hugging him back just as tightly.

"I missed you so much Thalia! Wait until you see Percy and Annabeth. Oh, they missed you a bunch. And I'm so excited for you and Piper to finally meet. Ugh, its going to be so awesome!" He turned and look at Nico and Reyna with a huge smile on his face.

"And you must be Nico and Reyna!" He ran over and gave Nico a huge hug. "My friends and I have been watching you for ages! Its so awesome to finally meet you!" He let go of Nico and quickly ran to Reyna.

"I love you too! You're one of my favorite people that are in Nico's videos!" He said, squeezing her tight. 

Reyna awkwardly hugged him back. "Um. Thanks?" She said, like it was a question. 

Jason let go and grabbed Nico and Reyna's suitcases. "Here. Let me help you put these in the car."

"What? You help the people you met a minute ago and you don't even offer to help your own sister?" Thalia said, faking shock.

Jason glanced at Thalia. "You look like you can handle yourself. You're a big, strong, independent woman who don't need no man."

They all laughed and climbed into Jason's car. Thalia took the front seat while Nico and Thalia sat in the back.

|LINE BREAK|

The car line to the hotel was abnormally long, seeing as Playlist Live didn't really start until the next night. Nico figured it was probably all the youtubers and Playlist Live staff member who showed up a day early. From the route they were taking, they had to turn onto the grounds of the huge hotel from the highway. That alone took about 10 minutes, plus another 20 trying to navigate their way to the parking garage through all the other cars that were trying to park. After parking, they had to carry their luggage all the way to the front of the hotel, where they would check into the hotel. 

'For some reason,' Nico thought to himself. 'the dimwits who designed this hotel couldn't have made the parking deck a little closer to the hotel entrance.'

The group entered the hotel and immediately Nico's eyes widened and he stared in awe at the hotel around him.

"Wow." He said, mostly to himself.

"I know." Jason said. "That was my reaction when I went to Playlist for the first time."

The hotel lobby was gorgeous. It was like nothing Nico had ever seen before. It was several stories tall, with hallways going out in different areas. There was a huge globe that read Playlist Live and even a fountain. A clear elevator stood in the center of it all, looming above them all. Everything looked so fancy, and Nico felt out of place in his disgusting plane clothes consisting of a dark grey t-shirt and black sweatpants and his sneakers. Nico and Reyna quickly got in the long line for check in.

"Well," Jason said to them. "I guess this is all I can show you for now. I already checked Thalia and I in when I got here earlier. Our room number is 4026, in case you forgot. Oh, also, to get to your room just go down that hallway over there and there will be some double doors with security guards around them and you just need to show them your card and they'll let you in. I hope to see you guys sometime later!"

"Bye chucklefucks!" Thalia said, as Jason and she walked away.

"Bye Jason, it was nice meeting you! Bye Thalia!" Reyna yelled after them. Nico just waved.

They continued through the line and were stopped by an employee as they neared the front of the line. The young women had a basket full of goodies like Cape Cod potato chips, pretzels, and Pocky.

"Hello. Welcome to the World Marriott hotel. Can I interest you in any complimentary snacks while you wait in line?" She said.

Nico turned to Reyna, who was currently eyeing the potato chips. Nico turned back to the staff member and nodded.

"Um, yes please. I'll have a pack of Pocky and my friend here will take some potato chips." Nico said.

The woman smiled and handed them the food. "I hope you enjoy your stay here."

Nico smiled slightly as the woman walked away to offer snacks to the next group in line. "Thank you."

|LINE BREAK|

Nico and Reyna walked slowly to the hallway Jason had directed them towards a few minutes earlier. The hall itself was mostly deserted, with only a few staff member walking through it, straightening chairs and benches and making sure everything was in perfect shape.

They walked into another hallway where they spotted the several sets of double doors to the one side of the hall. On the other side of the hallway were window, looking out over the pool. And straight down the hall was more hallway.

They walked up to the guard and showed him their cards. He nodded and waved them through. 

The ballroom they entered into through the doors was huge. There was Playlist Live banners everywhere and a stage on one side of the room. Nico could see other people roaming around the hall, and all of them looked somewhat familiar. He assumed they were all other youtubers that had been invited to Playlist, since apparently only creators were allowed in this area of the hotel.

The people milling around looked up when Nico entered the room. He assumed almost all of them recognized him because most of them smiled at him. Nico had no idea who any of these people were.

Nico turned to Reyna and nudged her. She kept looking at somebody in the small crowd of people gathered near the stage. 

"Reyna!" Nico whisper yelled. No reaction. He elbowed her again.

"Reyna?" Nico followed her gaze to where she was looking and looked at the people in the group. All of them were looking back at him, except for one, who was looking straight at Reyna. Nico recognized him as a musician who was famous through youtube. His name was Topher Grey, Nico recalled, only because he was one of the only youtubers Reyna actively watched. Nico was pretty sure Reyna had a bit of a crush on him.

"Reyna! Hey! Stop staring at your boyfriend and let's go to our room. I don't like all the people looking at me." Nico said, knowing the crack at Topher would snap Reyna out of her fantasy.

Nico was right as Reyna blushed and turned back to Nico. "Sorry. And boyfriend? Seriously? What are you? 12?"

Nico shrugged. "Come on. I want to take a nap."

Nico and Reyna took hold of their luggage again and walked through the ballroom to a hallway on the side of room. They ventured down the hall until they found a room marked 4020. Reyna pulled her key card out and slipped it into the lock. The light of the door knob turned green and they moved into the room.

Nico placed his suitcase next to the balcony and flopped down onto the bed. 

"I'm going to take a nap," Nico said into his pillow.

Reyna sighed. "Of course you are. While you nap, I'm going to explore the hotel and go talk to some other youtubers. Once you get up from your sleep, I suggest you do the same. You need more friends."

Nico groaned an okay and started to drift off. He heard the door close and fell asleep.


	5. |HELLO|

Nico groaned as he blinked the sun out of his eyes. He sat up slowly, despite feeling energetic from his power nap. He turned to the clock next to the hotel bed and saw the clock read 6:37. He had slept for about 2 hours, which was pretty good considering the amount of sleep he got on a normal basis. Flying really tired him out.

He looked down as he stomach grumbled, begging to be fed. The last time he ate was around lunch time and he had only had a granola bar so he wouldn't get sick on his flight.

Nico got out of bed looked at his phone. He had a few tweet notification from some of his favorite celebrities and a text message from Reyna.

[Reyna]   
hey im gonna be by the pool for a while if u wanna stop by at some point

[Nico]  
ok i just woke up so im gonna get some food and then head to the pool probably

Nico quickly threw a sweatshirt on over his grey shirt and slipped his shoes on. He grabbed his phone, wallet, name card, and room key and exited the room. He walked down the hall and through the ballroom with his head down and hood up. He didn't want anyone trying to come up and talk to him without Reyna or one of his friends there. He would probably say something weird and freak the other person out.

He made his way through the lobby down to a lower level, where he had read on the map, was a store/market that sold snacks and other foods. 

There weren't many people in this area of the hotel either, so Nico felt comfortable with putting his hood up. He gazed at the drinks, ultimately deciding on buying a bottled water. He grabbed a smart water and quickly continued along with his shopping. He spotted an area where burgers, fries, hotdogs, and the like were being made. He grabbed a cheeseburger and a cup of fries before heading off and looking at the snack foods. He grabbed two packs of Pocky, one for if he woke up in the middle of the night hungry and one as a gift for Reyna. 

After Nico brought the food to the checkout line to be bought, he quickly made his way to the sets of tables and chairs right next to the market.

He unwrapped his burger and ate it slowly. Nico was a small human and really couldn't eat fast. He eventually finished the really good burger and moved onto the fries.

Nico was a people watcher. He watched as people walked by and he tried to make up life stories from just one glance at the person. He saw a girl with fiery red, curly hair walk by on the phone, trying to stay calm but Nico could tell she was very agitated. 

He watched another girl with caramel colored hair walk by vlogging. Nico didn't have to make up a life story for her because Nico had actually watched some of her videos in the past. Her name was Calypso Atlas, Nico recalled. She was a small youtuber who ran a fan account on Instagram and made videos about conspiracy theories focused around a youtuber called TheSuperSizedMcShizzle, or Leo Valdez. She kept her social media and youtube anonymous but Nico had messaged her before so he was one of the few youtubers who actually knew her identity. Nico also knew that she planned to do a face reveal while at Playlist Live. Calypso was one of the very few youtubers Nico would say he was friends with.

Calypso smiled at Nico and he smiled and waved back.

Nico finished his food and threw out the trash. He shoved the Pocky in his pocket and walked through the halls towards the pool. 

"Nico di Angelo?" He heard a voice call. 

Nico turned around and nearly had a heart attack. Percy Jackson was standing right in front of him with his fiance Annabeth Chase.

"Percy Jackson!" Nico said enthusiastically. "Holy crow. Wow. I've just always been a huge fan of you."

Percy smiled widely. "Nico di Angelo is a fan of me? This is the best day ever! You are legit one of my favorite youtubers and wow I can't believe you know who am I!"

Annabeth smiled at her fiance and extended her hand towards Nico. "Hi. I'm Annabeth. Percy and I have been watching you for a while now. It's really nice to meet you."

Nico smiled and shook her hand. "Its a pleasure to meet you." He turned back to Percy. "You were literally the reason I got into Youtube. Do you know how exciting it is to meet you? This is younger me's dream come true!"

Percy's smile was the biggest smile Nico had ever seen. He turned to Annabeth. "Babe, did you hear that? Nico di Angelo said I was the reason he joined Youtube! Can you believe it?"

Annabeth smiled at Percy. "That's pretty awesome, huh?"

Percy turned back to Nico. "Can I hug you?"

Nico was taken back. Percy Jackson, the man who made Nico realize he was gay, wanted to give him a hug. If Nico was a year or two younger, he may have fainted. Instead, he just smiled even wider.

"Of course!" Nico opened his arms and Percy quickly squeezed Nico. 

"Oh my god." Nico heard Percy say. "This is, like, one of the best things that ever happened to me. Wait until Jason hears about this."

Nico pulled back. "Wait. Did you say Jason? As in Jason Grace?"

Percy gasped. "You know Jason?"

Nico nodded. "His sister lives in the same apartment building as me. Jason came and picked us up from the airport."

Percy gasped, but this time a little less happily. "You mean to say that Jason Grace, my best friend, picked you up at the airport and drove you here, but he didn't tell me? Jason knows how much I love you. I'm going to kill him next time I see him.

Nico and Annabeth laughed as Percy fumed.

"I'm seriously going to go find him right now. Annabeth, Nico, do you know where he could be?" Percy said. 

Annabeth shrugged and turned to Nico. "I've got nothing. Do you have an idea?"

Nico thought for second. "His room number is 4026. He might be in there."

"4026. Got it." Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and started to pull her along.

Annabeth turned around and waved goodbye to Nico. "It was nice to finally meet you! We hope to see you at one of the creator parties throughout these next few days!"

Nico smiled. "Bye guys!"

The couple ran off laughing and Nico decided to head off to the pool. There weren't many people at the pool. Nico figured that since most of the fans were arriving tomorrow, thats probably why nobody was in the hotel and it seemed kind of deserted. Nico rolled up his pants and sat down at the edge of the pool to stick his feet in the water. He looked around the pool and didn't see Reyna anywhere. He pulled out his phone to ask where she was.

[Nico]  
hey im at the pool. where are you?

[Reyna]   
oh sorry. i met some people so im hanging out with them in the ballroom place where the partyish thingy was. come by?

Nico sighed. He really didn't want to do too much social interaction today. He decided he would just stay at the pool.

[Nico]  
nah. i think im just gonna hang by the pool for a while. its pretty deserted here.

[Reyna]  
okay. text me when you decide to come back in.

Nico put his phone back in his sweatshirt pocket and closed his eyes, taking in the feel of nature around him.

"Nico!" He heard someone scream. He winced, thinking it was probably some crazy fan. Nico opened his eyes and turned to see a short girl with brown, frizzy hair running towards him. Following her quickly was a big Chinese man. Nico instantly recognized them.

"Hazel! Frank!" Nico jumped up and ran to the couple. Nico and Hazel ran into each other and hugged. The swayed back in forth in the hug.

"I've missed you so much, Hazel." Nico said to her.

They pulled back. "I've missed you too, Nico!" Hazel said, looking like she was about to cry tears of joy.

Nico smiled at Frank. "Hey, Frank. Its been a while. You better be treating my sister right."

"I-uh-I-yeah." Frank stuttered.

"Nico! Don't scare my boyfriend like that! I thought we talked about this." Hazel said, holding back a laugh.

Nico smirked. "Yeah. I know. I just love to mess with they guy." He turned back to Frank. "You know I do actually like you? Right?" 

Frank smiled and nodded, pulling Nico into a side hug. 

"I know you don't really like hugs so I'm gonna give you a half one. Because we're buddies." Frank said. 

Nico laughed. "Thanks. Some people," He glared at Hazel. "just love to go ahead and do a full on hug without my permission."

Hazel shrugged with a smile. "You know you loved it."

The group of three walked back to the edge of the pool and all sat together. Nico was on one end, with Hazel next to him and Frank on the other side of Hazel. They talked for a while and caught up. At one point they just relaxed into a comfortable silence. Frank got up to use the restroom and Nico found his attention shifted to a group of three people across the pool.

It was two boys and one girl. One boy was short with light brown hair. He was laughing. A lot. Nico could hear his laugh from all the way over where he was sitting. The laugh was loud. And obnoxious. Nico immediately did not like him. His arm was slung over the girl's shoulder.

The girl had medium length black hair with green streaks in it. She was a little shorter than the first boy. She was smiling but not laughing as hard as the boy. She was trying to push the third boy into the water

Once Nico saw the third boy, it was hard for him to peel his eyes off him the boy. He had curly blond hair and what looked like a natural Californian tan. Nico should know. He lived in California and could tell the difference between a real and fake tan. He was taller than the other two. He seemed to be around 6 feet tall, which was giant to Nico, who was only 5'6. He had piercing blue eyes. They were almost as blue as Misha Collin's eyes, but Nico being the tumblr fanatic that he was, knew nothing was as blue as Misha's eyes.

Nico watched as the brown haired boy and the girl continued to try to push the blond boy into the pool. They finally succeeded and Blondie just went ahead and jumped into the water. He came up for air and did the hair flip that boys do- you know the one. 

Nico was intrigued with this group. He nudged Hazel and nodded in their direction.

"Do you know who they are?" Nico asked.

Hazel squinted and looked. "Yeah, I think thats Will Solace, Cecil Markowitz, and Lou Ellen Blackstone. They're pretty popular youtuber, or, at least Will is."

Nico nodded. He vaguely remember the name Will Solace from something but he couldn't put his finger on who he knew him.

"I know that name from somewhere. Where do I know it?" Nico said, mostly to himself.

Hazel overheard and looked at him. "Really, Nico? You don't know? Will Solace is the one that all your fans ship you with! You know, that thing they always comment. Its that really weird combination of your names." Hazel was quiet for a moment as she thought. 

"Solangelo!"Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

"Solangelo? That sounds like some kind of disease." Nico said. "And anyway, shipping two random people who have never met together is kind of weird."

Hazel shrugged. "They're fangirls. Its what they do."

Nico turned back to the group and watched Will closely. He had climbed out of the pool and his friends had given him a towel to dry off. He stared at Will, not really meaning too, but Nico had just kind of zoned out. 

Nico was snapped back into reality when Will looked over at him and Hazel and saw Nico staring. Will smiled and winked at him. Will winked at him. Winked. At Nico. Nico felt himself blush. He quickly looked away from the group.

"Hazel? I-uh- I'm going to go inside and go find Reyna at the party in that ballroom. Okay?" Nico said, trying to hide the blush on his face.

Hazel smiled at him. "Okay Nico. See you soon."

Nico stood up and walked inside, completely aware of the pair of eyes that were watching him.


	6. |NIGHT|

There were a lot more people in the ballroom now then there were when Nico left. Nico couldn't see anyone he knew, which wasn't saying much because he only knew about 5 people that would be there. Nico knew Reyna was in here somewhere, talking and hanging out with her new friends. It's not that Nico was jealous or anything. It was just that he was kind of counting on Reyna to help him out with human interaction, and she couldn't exactly do that if she was nowhere to be found.

Nico walked over to where some refreshments were being kept, grabbing himself a cup of whatever was in the bowl. He figured it probably wasn't laced with anything, since there were some underage YouTubers here, but you could never be sure with the top pranksters of youtube, Connor and Travis Stoll, standing nearby.

He took a sip of the drink and cringed. Yup. It definitely had some kind of alcohol in it. 

"Hey, Nico! You like our mystery concoction?" Nico turned around and saw Connor Stoll smiling at him.

Nico grinned. "Yeah. It's real mysterious. What's in it? Punch? And Alcohol?"

Travis walked up behind his brother and shrugged. "It's a little bit of whatever we could find at gas stations on the drive here."

"You guys didn't fly? You drove here from North Carolina?" Nico knew the boys from the time they had visited California for VidCon and ended up crashing at Nico's place for a night. They were from a small town in North Carolina and yet they were some of the most popular YouTubers. They mostly did prank videos on their friends and family.

Connor laughed lightly. "Yeah. We kind of figured that with our, uh, reputation, it wouldn't be the best option for us to fly on a plane."

Nico nodded. "Yeah. How long was the drive?"

"Nine hours!" Travis groaned. "It was pure hell."

Connor and Travis went on to talk about how they dealt with the long car ride, but Nico wasn't really listening. He had spotted the blond from the pool, Will Solace. Will was still with his friends from earlier, Cecil and Lou Ellen, Nico recalled. Will's group had also joined Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. 

Nico pondered going over there and joining them since he was friends with Percy and Annabeth, but he knew he was going to be awkward around Will. 

Nico watched Will from afar. Will had the best smile that Nico had ever seen. He could light up the whole room with just one look, and that's exactly what he seemed to be doing now. Nico watched Will smile and laugh with Percy. Nico wanted to go over there with them but without Reyna, there was no way Nico would be able to do that.

"Nico? Buddy? You listening?" Connor waved his hand in front of Nico's face.

Nico turned back to the brothers. "Yeah, sorry. I thought I spotted my friend that I've been looking for so I'm gonna go grab her."

Travis nodded. "Alright, Nico. Take care!"

Connor smiled and waved as Nico walked away.

Nico looked around the room, searching for some hint of Reyna so he wouldn't have to sit in some corner by himself. After a good ten minutes of searching, Nico couldn't spot her long black hair anywhere.

Nico sighed and headed towards the hallway that led to his room. If he couldn't find Reyna, then what was the point of him even staying at the party. Nico navigated his way through the large crowd.

Nico let out a deep breath when he finally entered the empty hall. There was no way in hell he was going to go back out there in that mess, especially without knowing exactly where Reyna was.

Nico reached his door and stuck his hand in his pocket to grab the key card. He stuck the card into the door and waited for the light on the door to turn green. He waited. And waited. 

Nico pulled the card out and examined it. It looked fine. Nico put it back in the slot. The light was still red. Nico took the card out again and started to think about why it wasn't working. All that had happened was the card sat in her pocket for a while. 

Fuck.

Nico had put the card in his pocket, next to his phone. He was so stupid. He had the card sitting next to his phone when he knew that a phone's radiation messes up a hotel card's magneticity. That's why his card wasn't working. And of course, to make matters worse, Nico's phone was at 3 percent. 

Nico put his back to the door and slid down it slowly. There was no way Nico was going to go back to the party to try to find Reyna and get her card. It was just too crowded and Nico knew he would probably end up freaking out or not even finding Reyna. 

Nico decided to try to text Reyna with the remaining battery that he had.

[Nico]  
hey so im really stupid and i put my key card next to my phone and now my card doesnt work and i kinda want to get into our room so when u get this can u pls come to the room and let me in? thanks

Nico had only just sent the text when his phone shut off. Sighing, Nico placed his phone next to him on the ground. Nico stuck his legs out in front of him and looked around at the hall surrounding him. The walls were a nice creme color. Down the end of the hall where Nico hadn't entered from, the walls turned down what Nico assumed was another hallway. 

Nico sighed again and placed his head on the door behind him. He closed his eyes, picked up his head, and banged it against the door. Again and again. Nico was about to hit his head for the eleventh time when he heard a voice from above him. 

"You should probably stop hitting your head against the door. Do you have any idea how many brain cells you can lose from doing that?"

Nico opened his eyes and almost gasped. It was Will Solace. Nico sat up straight and shrugged.

"I locked myself out of my room with no way to get in until my roommate returns from the party," Nico explained.

"Ah" Will nodded and sat down next to Nico. "I feel you. My actual roommate Cecil has locked me out too many times to count. I once had to actually sit outside of our apartment all night, waiting for Cecil to come home from the party he was at. "

Nico laughed. "Wow. That's never actually happened to me before. I just had my room key next to my phone for a few hours so it kind of got messed up and now it doesn't work."

Will smiled. "We've all made that mistake before." He stuck his hand out to Nico. "I'm Will."

'I know' Nico thought to himself. "I'm Nico." He shook Will's hand and smiled.

Will laughed sheepishly, letting go of Nico's hand (Nico was not going to lie. He missed the warm contact of his hand on Will's). "Uh yeah. I kind of knew that already. I saw you at the pool earlier. You looked familiar and I asked my friends who you were." Will blushed and Nico was taken back.

Nico rubbed the back of his neck. "Really? I kind of did the same thing at the pool, too. I asked my sister, Hazel, what your name was."

Will smiled and nodded. "What that your sister who you were at the pool with?"

"Yeah. I met up with her and her boyfriend Frank there. I hadn't seen her in a few months so it was nice to see her again."

Will cooed. "Awww. That's so sweet that you miss your sister so much! I live in New York but I grew up in California so my brothers and sisters all live there. I miss them loads but we all skype once a week."

Nico smiled. "Hazel's in college at New Rome so I don't get to see her much. I try to skype as often as I can but between Hazel's workload and my YouTube career, there just isn't a lot of time."

Will nodded and we sat for a few minutes in silence. Suddenly Will jerked forward.

"What's your schedule like? I wonder if we have any meetups or panels together." Will said with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"Uh. I'm not sure. My phone died and I can't really remember what panels I have. I do know that I have meetup number 17, though." Nico said.

Will gasped and smiled brightly. His eyes lit up. "No way! I have meetup number 17, too! This is so cool! We'll get to hang all morning!"

Nico felt himself start to smile. Weirdly, it didn't feel forced at all. Nico found himself genuinely happy to be able to spend time with Will Solace. Now Nico was confused. Why was he so happy to hang out with one Will Solace? There was something about him. Nico couldn't quite place it. Will was very bright in contrast to Nico's dark persona. Maybe that was it? Did Nico like the sense of balance he felt around Will? Probably. But Nico didn't think that was the real reason. Nico believed it was because Will was one of the only people Nico had met that didn't automatically treat him like he was going to try to kill themselves if you said the wrong thing. 

Nico smiled at Will. "I'm glad to say that I'm really excited."

Will smiled back at Nico so brightly that Nico forgot every bad thing that had ever happened to him.

And he was glad.


	7. |AWAKE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> breakfast happens. chaos and dirty jokes ensue

"Nico?"

Nico jolted awake when he heard his name. He opened his eyes and saw a long hallway stretching beside him. He was utterly confused as to where he was. He shoulder was sore like he had slept on it wrong, but Nico chose to ignore it.

"What are you doing out here at 3 am?"

Nico looked up and saw Reyna standing in front of him. 

Nico shifted slightly. Damn, his shoulder really hurt. What the hell had happened?

Nico groaned. "Its 3 am? What the fuck?"

Reyna extended her arm for Nico to grab. 

"I just came back from the party and you were passed out in front of our room," She said as Nico stood up.

The memories from only hours before came rushing back to Nico. His head swung around but Will was nowhere to be seen. Nico felt his heart drop. Will had left. That means he probably didn't care about Nico. Nico turned back to Reyna.

"I-uh- I came back from the party early because I was so tired but I had left my phone next to my room key so the card didn't work. I was going to come and find you, but I sat down and ended up falling asleep. Sorry." 

Reyna nodded. "Don't apologize. I should've been looking out for you. Come on, let's go inside."

Reyna pulled her key out and shoved it into the door. The door swung open and the pair quickly stumbled through the darkness to the beds, not even bothering with the lights. Nico heard Reyna shuffle the covers on her bed and climb in. Nico plugged his phone in, changed into his pajamas, and sat on his bed until he heard Reyna's breaths even out, signaling she had fallen asleep.

Nico took a deep breath and fell back onto his bed. He didn't get under the covers, but instead just chose to lay on top of the blanket. He laid there for hours, just thinking about life, about Will. Slowly, Nico felt himself drift off to sleep.

|LINE BREAK|

Nico blinked his eyes open as the sun streamed in through the window. Goddamnit. He had forgotten to close the curtains before he fell asleep. Nico pulled his phone out and checked the time. 9:36. That was way too fucking early. 

Nico opened up the twitter app and looked through his feed. He favorited a few tweets about himself, retweeted a funny video or two. The works. 

Nico closed the app and saw that he had a text. 

[Jason]  
hey nico!! this is jason grace. i got your number from thalia and i was wondering if you wanted to stop by my room at some point to do a collab video with me and percy?

[Nico]

yeah, sure i'd love to! what time should i come?

[Jason]   
well a few of my friends and i are going to grab breakfast in a few minutes if you want to come. and afterward, we can just go back to my room. we're meeting at the actual breakfast place towards the lobby.

[Nico]  
yeah sounds good. see you then

[Jason]  
aight dude. see you soon

Nico shut his phone off and groaned. He couldn't believe he just agreed to go get breakfast with a bunch of strangers so early in the morning. Nico frowned when he realized that he had to go and sat up. 

He threw on a dark grey Blink-182 sweatshirt and black ripped skinny jeans. He stuck his phone in his pocket and threw a twenty dollar bill into the other.

"Well, you're up early."

Nico jumped at Reyna's voice. He had assumed she was still asleep, yet when he turned around she was sitting up.

"Shit Reyna. You scared me." Nico laughed.

Reyna smiled. "That was the plan."

She got out of bed and headed towards her suitcase. "Now why are you up so early? Normally you sleep until at least 11."

Nico shrugged. "The sun was too bright and Jason invited me to go get breakfast with him."

Reyna grabbed her clothes and headed to the bathroom. "I'm probably going to go hang out with some people I met last night. Text me if you need me?"

Nico nodded and headed out the door. "Always."

Nico turned and headed towards the large banquet hall where the party was thrown. From there, he walked out through the doors that led him back to the public part of the hotel. It was only a short 30-second walk to the breakfast area after that.

"Nico! Over here!" He turned and saw Percy Jackson waving to him from a table of what looked like 9 people. It was Percy, Jason, Annabeth, Thalia, Frank, Hazel, Calypso, and two others that Nico didn't meet yet. It was a boy and a girl that Nico recognized from YouTube, but he couldn't quite remember their names.

The girl had two choppy braids the color of chestnut. She was very tan and had eyes that shifted color. The boy was also very tan and looked to be of Hispanic descent. His hair was brown and curly and he seemed to be fiddling with something under the table.

Jason pulled a seat out between Thalia and him. He motioned for Nico to sit down and turned to the rest of the table. "I know that most of you know Nico, but in case you don't, this is Nico di Angelo."

A chorus of 'hey Nico' went around the table. Kaleidoscope eyes leaned across the table to talk to him.

"Hey. I'm Piper McLean and the elf sitting next to me is Leo Valdez." She said with a smile.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nico." He replied.

Leo Valdez turned to look at him. "Nico. Nico di Angelo. Where do I know that name? I heard it somewhere this morning but I just can't place where."

Nico shrugged. "I don't know."

Leo grinned. "It'll come back to me eventually."

Nico turned back to Piper. "Is he always like this?"

Piper laughed and grinned sheepishly. "You get used to it after a while."

The group continued talking and soon enough a waitress came around to take their order. 

"Hey, guys! What can I get y'all?" She asked.

Jason spoke up first. "Actually we're all going to do the buffet, but we're still waiting on a few more people."

The waitress smiled and nodded. "Alrighty! If you guess need anything, just wave!"

She bounced away and Nico couldn't help but feel a little annoyed at her sunshiny composure. 

"God. Her smile was so wide. I thought her jaw was going to break." He whispered to Thalia.

Thalia choked on her water and spit it out. "Oh my god. Tell me about it! I thought her cheeks were going to split right open and she was going to look like the joker!"

Nico smiled at Thalia's remark. He actually thought it was hilarious but he didn't quite feel 100% safe around this wild group of young adults. If you could even call them that. Percy was currently flinging pieces of balled up straw wrappers at Leo's head. Leo retaliated by creating a little robot to march over to Percy and steal his sugar packets.

Nico rolled his eyes at the boys' antics and turned to Jason. "Who else are we waiting for?"

Jason opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by a new voice.

"That would be us."

Nico heard that voice. Nico recognized that voice. That was the voice that haunted his dreams. Well, for one night at least. That was the voice of probably the first and last person Nico wanted to see right now. Nico turned slowly and standing in front of him in the flesh and blood, was none other than Will Solace, along with his two laggies, Cecil Markowitz and Lou Ellen Blackstone.

He was wearing a white t-shirt that said 'Surf's Up!' in blue lettering along with khaki shorts and sandals. The shirt looked so perfect against his tan skin and Nico could feel his own face heating up.

"Hey, Nico!" Will said, staring down at him. 

Will had said his name. Nico was NOT panicking. Okay, maybe he was panicking a little bit. Alright. Nico was panicking a whole lot. So he did what was wired into his brain to do. Act like he didn't care.

"Will." He said, turning back to the table in front of him.

He could feel Will's confused glaze searing into the back of his head and he could feel Jason wondering what the hell was going on with him.

"Well!" A loud clap interrupted his antagonizing thoughts. "The party has arrived so what are we waiting for?" Cecil yelled. "Let's get some breakfast!"

The large group cheered and walked up to be the buffet. Nico lagged behind the group a little bit, taking his time with standing up and grabbing his plate. He had planned that he wouldn't get stuck in line with Will, who seemed as though he was a breakfast fanatic and raced ahead of everyone to be first. Of course, though, Nico somehow ended up wedged between Will and Piper. 

They went through the line so slowly that Nico thought he was going to bark due to the scents of all the different foods mixing together. The worst part? Around all these new people, Nico was too nervous to eat so all he did was stand in that horrifying line for god knows how line so no god damn reason. 

"Aren't you gonna eat something?" He felt Will nudge him.

'I-um I'm not sure what to get?" Nico said it as though it was a question. Which surprised him because he hadn't planned on eating. That Will Solace just did something to him.

Will leaned across him and grabbed two pieces of sausage. He dropped one on his plate and placed the other on Nico's. 

He leaned into Nico's ear and whispered: "I personally think the sausage is just divine." 

He leaned back, winked at Nico (who could feel a blush spreading fiercely across his face), and walked out of the line and back to the table.

Nico stood still in pure shook before regaining his composure.

"What the fuck?" He whispered to himself.

He turned around to face Piper who he could hear sighing softly to herself.

"Did that just happen or am I going fucking crazy?" He asked her.

Smiled and him and gave him a knowing look. "Oh, it happened alright. And you look like you enjoyed it quite immensely."

She patted him on the shoulder and walked away. 

Nico stared at himself in his reflection of his silver tray. He signed and walked back to the table. Nico only had one thought as he sat down, starting eating, and watched Will's face light up at the different antics around the table.

'Will Solace is going to be the death of me.'


End file.
